When we go back to in-person classes in Winter 2022, we know things won't go back exactly to the way they were before. Nor should they! We have learned a lot about alternative ways of assessing students, delivering content, and designing courses during the 6 terms we've had to do some remote teaching. Here are some of the things I'm hoping to keep when we move back into the classroom:
Online office hours as well as in person - convenient and practical
Use a variety of authentic assessment techniques - not just closed-book time-limited tests, although...
UPDATE: This position has been filled. Thank you to everyone who applied!
I am seeking an undergraduate Research Assistant (RA) to help me advance ongoing research projects related to collaboration. In 2019, I began a new project on "Developing a Collaborative Mindset" (where a 'collaborative mindset' includes traits like open-mindedness, empathy, appreciation for diversity, and epistemic humility). I previously worked with an RA to conduct a literature review on these various topics (e.g., the role of epistemic humility in collaboration), and to identify gaps...
UPDATE: This position has been filled. Thank you to everyone who applied!
I am seeking a current upper-year student or recent graduate to help me design and build a website for my new lab, The Collaboratory (aka "Co-Lab"), and to craft a social media strategy to increase the broader impact of Co-Lab's research. (For context, I am an associate professor in Knowledge Integration, studying interdisciplinary collaboration.)
JOB DETAILS * 聽Start date: Negotiable, but sometime between early December 2021 and early January 2022.聽 * 聽...
On July 1, 2021, I took over the position of Math Faculty Teaching Fellow, following in the footsteps of two of my fabulous colleagues, Brian Forrest and Cyntha Struthers. I'm really excited to bring my expertise and passion to the job, and here are some of the things I'm hoping to accomplish in my 3 years:
Blended Learning Initiative
This is part of a long term University-wide plan to have more blended courses. COVID teaching was the push some needed to create resources, so let's use them for the long term! If you have an in-person component this...
Like many faculty members, I know that the research suggests a blended or flipped approach to learning (where students do some work outside of class time e.g. by watching videos or doing readings, and spend the in-class time working on problems and actively engaging with material) is better by far than only using classes for lectures where students absorb information passively. The thing that always held me back from applying this approach was the enormous amount of time and effort it would take to create that out-of-class content.
Online learning has driven more traffic than ever to discussion boards such as Piazza. I鈥檝e had a lot of success with mine 鈥 one of my favourite things from this term is how kind and helpful my students are to each other. I know not everyone has the same experience so I wanted to share how I create the conditions for meaningful and productive interaction. Hopefully these tips can help you get the most out of your online discussion forum of choice.
For context, this is a large (~500 students) required introductory course in probability with fully asynchronous delivery.
In Winter 2020, my large introductory undergrad course went online abruptly for the last three weeks. Luckily as a core course there was already online course material available, and we were able to pivot fairly painlessly. In Spring 2020 I taught two small grad courses, and we did them completely synchronously so not much needed to change. But for the Fall 2020 term, when I was scheduled to teach a mid-size upper-year undergrad course, I needed to think very intentionally about how I was going to design it.
The Math faculty expressed a strong preference for asynchronous...
There is no one right way to create lecture material for an online course. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. I鈥檓 going to describe what I do, not because I think it鈥檚 鈥渂est鈥 but just for interest. The adage "if I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter" comes to mind, in that it does take more time to make a succinct video, but I think it is worth it.
One thing that was extremely important to me was preserving my own personal style in the videos. In class I always use the chalkboard (never slides) because there is a huge benefit to seeing problems worked...